At present, extreme, sports and military navigation are practiced either by memorizing a route on a map, by holding and reading a physical map, or by following visual and/or sound directions of a given navigation computerized application. These available practices are not practical for certain types of extreme, sport and military navigation scenarios and conditions. Often, they are ineffective in directing the user to his target accurately, on time and safely.
Most prior art systems relay and employ subjective skills such as cognitive abilities (e.g. intelligence, perception of space, natural orienteering, etc.) and weak, easy to disrupted, senses such as vision and sound: The resulting navigation experience of prior art devices is that they are demanding and often fail due to environmental disturbances to the user.
The prior art technique of memorizing a route on a map is a practice which requires subjective orientation skills, intensive learning and training and considerable preparation time before the navigation. Moreover, while navigating on an unmarked route at natural/wild/hostile environments, it becomes a difficult task even for professionals. Mistakes and misdirection are common, obliging the hiker, athlete or soldier to stop and open an actual map (or a computerized navigation application). This costs them time, disqualification in competitions and military courses, their professional reputation, and may even create grave danger at hostile military scenarios while stopping and illuminating the map.
Holding and reading a physical map is a practice which is impractical for sport, extreme and military navigation scenarios and conditions, as it requires the hiker, athlete or soldier to continuously stop and open an actual map and thus costing them time, disqualification in competitions and military courses, their professional reputation, and may cause grave danger at hostile military scenarios while stopping and illuminating the map.
Visual directions—as in holding and reading a physical map, this practice is irrelevant for sport, extreme and military navigation scenarios and conditions as it requires the hiker, athlete or soldier to continuously stop and look at the actual map and thus costing them time, disqualification in competitions and/or military courses, their professional reputation, and may create grave danger at hostile military scenarios while stopping and using an illuminated screen.
There are also several wearable devices offering visual based indications for navigation (alongside vibration based indications). These applications hold the same described limitations and are even less practical as they employ tiny wrist-fitted screen, obliging the hiker, athlete or soldier to watch and focus on tiny visual indications while they are at a hectic environment requiring their optimal attention.
Verbal sound directions—this practice is irrelevant or less practical for sport, extreme and military navigation scenarios and conditions as it requires the hiker, athlete or soldier to focus on listening to the instructions while they are at a noise-hectic environment and need to be listening to their sound-rich environment, such as radio communication, conversations, potential threats, targets, animals in hunting, the weather, and even music, in the case of some athletes.
Vibration directions—there are several wearable devices offering vibration-based navigation. These ones namely offer a wristband comprising a plurality of haptic feedback devices arranged around a circumference of the wristband. This practice is irrelevant or less practical for sport, extreme and military navigation scenarios and conditions as the vibrating directions are of plurality of complex sensations imposed on one narrow area surrounding one hand and thus it requires the hiker, athlete or soldier to be extremely focused on (and attentive for) various complex sensations pulsing on a narrow segment of one of their hands: All that, while they are practically overwhelmed by stimulations from all senses all over their body (E.g. noises, rain, beatings, wounds, cold, heat, etc.) and by high-adrenaline sensations and emotions (fear, pain, aggressiveness, etc.). In other words, in the intense context of real life the hiker, athlete or soldier act in, they practically cannot differentiate between the concentrated vibrations and thus to translate the vibrations to actual directions; as the vibrations are limited to a too narrow area on the wrist.
WO 2014099004A1 describes an apparatus, method and other techniques for a wearable navigation device. For example, an apparatus may comprise a wristband comprising a plurality of haptic feedback devices arranged around a circumference of the wristband and logic to wirelessly receive navigation information from a computing device and to output the navigation information using one or more of the plurality of haptic feedback devices, the output comprising a mechanical representation of the navigation information. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
There is therefore an unmet need of a device capable of providing unmistakable, distinguished directional commands, without the need for verbal and/or visual instructions.